Jordan's Hussein Returns To U.s. Clinic

Doctors Fear Symptoms Signal Cancer Relapse

JERUSALEM — As abruptly as he had named a new heir the day before, King Hussein left Jordan on Tuesday to return to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, leaving his subjects to wonder whether they would ever see their ill monarch again.

Less than a week after returning home from six months of cancer treatment at the clinic, Hussein leaned against a cane at Jordan's international airport in the capital of Amman, where he said goodbye after overseeing a last-minute ceremony turning over temporary power to his oldest son, the new Crown Prince Abdullah.

Hussein had complained of fevers and fatigue, and his doctors said he suffered from "low blood counts." They feared the symptoms may indicate a recurrence of the non-Hodgkins lymphoma that the monarch said was cured when he left the Mayo Clinic in December.

Unlike his triumphant arrival last week, the king was not piloting his own plane as he departed.

"I, as well as doctors from the Mayo Clinic, thought it is best to send him back to the clinic for checkups and treatment," Lt. Gen. Samir Farraj, Hussein's private physician, said before departing with the king and his wife, Queen Noor.

It had been a stressful, emotional week for Hussein, 63. Despite his weak condition, he insisted on standing through the open roof of his white limousine in a cold rain for a motorcade through Amman on the day of his return.

Three days after hundreds of thousands lined the streets to welcome him, the ruler of the Middle East's most stable nation informed his brother Hassan, 51, that he was sacking him as crown prince, ending a 34-year relationship that lent an air of certainty to Jordanians' lives.

Hussein named Abdullah, 36, to take the place of Hassan on Monday. The front pages of Jordan's newspapers featured photos Tuesday morning of a beaming king looking on as Hassan passed a thick volume of royal decrees wrapped in blue ribbons to Abdullah.

The scene was meant to signal a successful transfer of succession within the ruling Hashemite family, which goes back to the 13th Century. Abdullah would be the fourth Hashemite to rule Jordan since his great-grandfather, Abdullah, founded the nation with British help after World War I.

Hussein's oldest son is an army major general and chief of Jordan's elite special forces who went to high school in the U.S. and attended Oxford, Georgetown and Sandhurst, Britain's military academy, before serving in the British army. Now he will serve as regent in Hussein's absence.

He received a letter from the king stating the ruler's "categorical confidence and trust in you and your ability to carry out all the responsibilities with the utmost dedication, loyalty and selflessness."

But an exchange of letters between Hussein and Hassan released by the palace late Monday indicated that the transfer was not so smooth and revealed for the first time that all was not tranquil in the Hashemite house.

In a 14-page letter dated Monday, the king praised and thanked his younger brother but lashed out at him and "climbers" within his camp for meddling in palace affairs while the king was overseas, "settling scores" in the military and resisting Hussein's efforts to have one of his own sons succeed Hassan.

Hussein revealed that he had wanted to convene a family council to decide whose son would receive the crown after Hassan, but the crown prince had wanted to reserve the decision for himself. The king lamented that he and his family "were hurt by the gossip and lies about my wife and children" by aides of Hassan, which included rumors of drug use by a son.

The king also told of sleepless nights on his sickbed worrying that "greedy" aides had persuaded Hassan to try to dismiss Hussein loyalists in the army, including the army chief over suspicions about how he had acquired a house that Hussein said was a gift from him.

The palace also released a letter from Hassan, dated Jan. 21, in which he submitted to the king's will on the succession issue.

But the king had wanted a letter of resignation from the crown prince, and the announcement of Abdullah's ascent had been delayed while officials unsuccessfully tried to persuade Hassan to redraft his letter.

As many analysts predicted, Jordan was calm as the change of succession transpired and the king of 45 years departed.

"Prince Abdullah has the support of the army and, because he is the king's son, he has the support of Bedouin tribes who form the bedrock of support for Hussein," said Faisal Refou, chairman of the political science department at the University of Jordan. Abdullah also has ties to another important constituency in Jordan: He is married to a Palestinian.

The king, a heavy smoker, has battled illness for a decade. He had a kidney removed in 1992 after cancerous cells were found and was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph glands last July at the Mayo Clinic.

His most recent illness could be the result of a chill from his motorcade ride in the rain, doctors said, or it could signal more serious problems. The fevers may result from an infection because the king's immunity is low, but doctors say patients with active lymphoma often have a high temperature.